BOARD01872

• Board Meeting Date: 9/27/1999
• Description: Colorado River Basin Issues - Interior Department's Indian Water Rights Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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settlers. In excess of 100,000 acres of irrigable land was allotted to tribal members. In 1906,
Congress authorized and appropriated funds for the construction of a federal irrigation project for
the irrigable allotments in the Duchesne River Basin. This Project is called the Uintah Indian
Irrigation Project and is owned and operated by the Bureau of lndian Affairs. No funds were
appropriated to build storage facilities for the Project, even though it was evident that without
storage, it would not be possible to irrigate all the Project lands for a full irrigation season.
However, at least 22 canals were completed by 1922.

The Project was constructed to serve 78,950 acres of the irrigable allotments. No tribal lands
were included in the Project, although the Tribe has since acquired a substantial number of
allotments in the Project. The Project is presently delivering water to about 60,000 acres;
approximately 28,500 acres served by the Project are now held in fee by non-Indians. Land
ownership patterns in this area resemble a checkerboard. The lands served by the Project are
classified as Groups I, 2 and 3 in accordance with a report on practicably irrigable acreage on the
Reservation prepared by E. 1. Decker, the Tribe's water engineer, in 1960. Water is delivered to
the Group I Project lands from two river systems---the Lake Fork-Yellowstone Rivers and the
Uinta-Whiterocks Rivers, tributaries of the Duchesne River. Water from these two river systems
was decreed for lands in the Project in two Federal Court Decrees in Equity Nos. 4418 and 4427,
both dated March 16, 1923. The Decrees adjudicated the entire natural flow on both river
systems, for irrigation, domestic, culinary and stockwatering purposes, between lands within the
Project and non-Indian lands outside the Project. Historically, the water supply from these rivers
has been insufficient to deliver a full water supply to the Group I lands because of the lack of
storage.

Water is delivered from the Duchesne River to Group 2 and 3 lands. At the request of the BIA,
the State Engineer certified water rights for the Group 2 and 3 lands on the Duchesne River and
has recognized an 1861 priority for those lands. Those water rights have not, however, been
adjudicated or decreed, Water currently is delivered to these lands pursuant to a state court order
issued annually pending completion of a general stream adjudication filed on March 5, 1956, by
the Utah State Engineer, In the Matter of the General Determination of the Rights to the Use of
All the Water, Both Surface and Underground, Within the Drainage Area afthe Uintah Basin.
"Uintah Basin" in this title represents a land area not a specific river basin. The United States
has not yet been served in that general stream adjudication, The State of Utah has agreed not to
serve the United States in the General Stream Adjudication in the hopes that a settlement of the
Tribe's reserved water rights can be reached. (We are now 45 years into that negotiation
process.) The Bureau ofIndian Affairs with the Tribe's concurrence has agreed to follow the
delivery schedule adopted annually by the Court (only used in water-short years) while
negotiations are ongoing, An informal stay of the adjudication exists pending completion of
negotiation and ratification of a water compact between the State and the Tribe, and approval by
the United States.

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